A poem by Katharine Lee Bates

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America, the Beautiful!

• A poem by Katharine Lee Bates

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In 1883 Katharine made her very first trip to the
American West. At that time, she was 33 years
old.
She stopped in Chicago to visit the Worlds Fair
and its model of a modern city, the first to be
lighted by electricity.
Later, she went to Colorado Springs to teach a
summer course in English religious drama. She
decided to make a trip up to Pikes Peak with her
fellow professors.
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Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned
with the traditional slogan Pikes Peak or
Bust, were pulled by horses up to the half-way
house, where the horses were relieved by mules.
We were hoping for half an hour on the summit,
but two of our party became so faint in the
rarified air that we were bundled into the wagons
again and started on our downward plunge so
speedily that our sojourn on the peak remains in
memory hardly more than one ecstatic gaze. It
was then and there, as I was looking out over the
sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading
away so far under those ample skies, that the
opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind!
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O beautiful for spacious skies
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For amber waves of grain
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For purple mountain majesties
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Above the fruited plain
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America! America!
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God shed his grace on thee
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And crown thy good
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With brotherhood
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From sea
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To shining sea!
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O beautiful for heroes proved
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In liberating strife
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Who more than self the country loved
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And mercy more than life!
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America! America!
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God mend thine every flaw
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Confirm thy soul in self control
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Thy liberty in law!
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O beautiful for patriot dream
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That sees beyond the years
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Thine alabaster cities gleam
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Undimmed by human tears
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America, America!
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God shed his grace on thee
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And crown thy good
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With brotherhood
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From sea
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To shining sea!
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(No Transcript)
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Visit http//www.pikespeakcam.com/ FOR LIVE
PICTURES OF PIKES PEAK!
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THE END

• Created by Patricia Oeste
• 2003